Glass stuffed bird case: 19th century

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Glass stuffed bird case. This case shows a number of stuffed birds under a glass shade. It consists of an arrangement of twenty eight stuffed humming birds mounted on a tree stump under a dome shaped glass shade. The popularity of humming bird ornaments from the 1860s created a lucrative trade with Central and South America. However, such displays were not without their opponents. In 1889 a group of women founded the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to bring to public attention the ecological damage and cruelty of the trade in exotic birds.